Sales of GM hybrids almost non-existent in first quarter

I missed covering this tidbit of information last week while I was traipsing through Europe, but some interesting information emerged when GM released their March sale results. GM has been making an awful lot of noise about their two-mode hybrid system with lots of announcements about all the vehicles the system will be installed in. What they aren't bragging much about is sales. That's because there isn't much to brag about. In fact it appears that the sum total of hybrid sales for all models offered by GM in the first three months of 2008 was 843. That is not a typo, it's 843. Unlike other manufacturers, GM has never broken out sales of hybrid models from conventional versions. Perhaps this is why.

During the same period Ford moved 5,225 Escape and Mariner Hybrids and Toyota sold...well let's just say Toyota sold a whole lot more than that. While GM has made plenty of auto show announcements about hybrids and they run lots of print and TV ads promoting their green-ness, they haven't really done a lot to promote hybrids on the lot. Perhaps they don't actually want to sell that many because the cost is so much higher and they don't want to lose all that money. Or perhaps customers just don't really want a hybrid full-size truck. Perhaps, as Troy Clarke told us at the Chicago Auto Show, they were holding them back for captured fleet testing until they were sure everything was right. Have any of you readers actually tried to find a hybrid at a dealership or tried to buy one? Let us know about your experience.

[Source: The Truth About Cars]